Discovered Treasure

If I never see a piece of blue painter's tape ever again I would be completely fine....I'm just kidding, but really.

 For years and years every time I would start to approach my hometown of Columbus, NE there is a big white barn that greets you on the outskirts of town. Whenever I pass by it, something would always trigger my curiosity of what's inside. I am always looking for projects to "re-do" and make into something beautiful. So on my way home from Christmas break I was determined to go once and for all. When I first walked inside of this massive barn, I didn't see much. A lot of of knick-nacks, old dinnerware and 1950's paintings with broken frames. When I made my way up the stairs, there were mainly old sofa's that where torn and in poor condition. Now I'm all about turning something that is about to burst at the seams into a masterpiece, but some of these pieces were beyond repair. As I turned the corner a vintage chest caught my eye. It has a torn broken handle and was starting to rust on the hardware. Immediately I envisioned of what a little TLC could do to this vintage chest. So $40 later on a blustering Saturday afternoon and it was mine! 

So now I had my handy work cut-out of me. With a little help from my boyfriend....okay okay, A LOT,  of help from my boyfriend, we were able to turn this vintage chest into a potential coffee table for my apartment next year.

The order we went about repairing the chest could be considered as our first mistake...rookie mistake might I add. We decided to strip and prime the wood first when we ultimately should have painted the gold hardware first. So we striped and primed the wood, covered it with blue tape, and then sprayed the canvas panels with primer and then white paint. Great, so now we only have the hardware left to "hand paint" gold right? Right! Expect one minor problem that turned into a major problem....there was no paint (other then spray paint) that would stick to the hardware and still give it a streak-free smooth look. So after hours and hours of contemplating and experimenting we decided to just cover EVERY INCH of the chest with blue tape so we could spray paint the hardware with gold metallic to give it the best appearance. After many rolls of blue tape later, one sharp exacto knife, and a back ache that still won't go away...the chest was done!